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College Basketball Handicapping: Injury Report 2-21-2014

Wyoming got terrible news on Wednesday when it learned that its star Larry Nance Jr. would miss the rest of the season due to a torn ACL. Nance was leading the Cowboys in scoring (15.4 points per game), rebounding (8.6 RPG), blocked shots (2.1 BPG) and steals (1.4 SPG). Larry Shyatt's team is in the bubble picture with a 17-9 overall record, but it will be a daunting task to get to the NCAA Tournament without Nance. The Cowboys, who are 14-7-2 against the spread, play Saturday at Colorado St.

Florida reserve point guard Kasey Hill missed Wednesday's non-covering home win over Auburn with a groin injury sustained in last Saturday's victory at Kentucky. Billy Donovan told the media Friday that "unless he has a miraculous recovery, he's out" Saturday at Ole Miss. Hill averages 5.6 points per game and has a 65/33 assists-to-turnovers ratio. Seniors Patric Young and Casey Prather are both playing through sore knees. Donovan said that Young wasn't going to play against Auburn until convincing the coaching staff he could go late that afternoon. It's a good thing he did because without Young scoring all 17 of his points in the second half, including a pair of go-ahead Read more

College Basketball Gambling: UMass tries to hang on to the basketball vs. VCU

Big game on tap tonight in the A-10 with VCU traveling to UMass. Saint Louis (24-2, 11-0) looks to be running away with the regular season crown but both the Rams and the Minutemen are eying a trip to the Big Dance. VCU won and covered both meetings last season; 86-68 at home and 71-62 in the conference tournament. The Rams forced 48 turnovers in the two games.

"You just can't (prepare for Havoc), because you don't know what they're going to throw at you," he said. "They're going to be looking to key in on certain players. They press and they put (junior guard Briante) Weber on the other team's best player."

"It's always difficult to prepare for it no matter what you do, just because they operate at a different speed," he said. "We've gotten a little better at it each time, but they do what they do, and they do it very well. They're one of the few teams nationally who press all the time and play their style no matter what.

Former Auburn player tries to erase bribery and conspiracy from record

Former Auburn basketball player and point shaver Varez Ward is taking steps to avoid having a felony on his record. Ward was originally arrested for bribery and conspiracy – during the game in question (Jan. 12, 2012 vs. Arkansas), the Tigers were catching +9.5, Ward got in the game but went down 19 seconds later with a leg injury. Auburn lost the game 56-53 but obviously covered the pointspread. Note also that Auburn opened +10.5 before closing +9.5 – not the type of market move associated with a fix. The whole episode appeared pretty mom-and-pop.

"He's happy to have the opportunity to go through life without a felony conviction on his record," Wess said Tuesday evening.

College Basketball Betting Free Play: Gonzaga Bulldogs at BYU Cougars

"All offense, no defense" has been BYU’s mantra from much of the season. The Cougars are 7-3 O/U in their last 10 games. Thirteen of BYU's last 16 games have all reached 152 or more and I expect this one to do the same. Helping that trend is BYU’s defense which has allowed 78 ppg and 1.01 PPP. Gonzaga is not known to be a fast paced team (65 possessions per game) but still managed to score 84 points and shoot 57.4% from the floor in their previous meeting against the Cougars. BYU played a grinder of a game last time out against St. Mary’s in a rare low scoring 60-57 win, but at back at home, I expect a return to form.

Gonzaga’s offense has been dialed in of late against WCC foes (78.8 L4) – a product of everyone being healthy. The Zags have also been strong defensively but BYU is a different animal of its home court; 49.2% FGs, 1.16 PPP, and nearly 89 ppg. Tyler Haws, Kyle Collinsworth, Matt Carlino and Eric Mika all average double figures which gives them a wealth of balance. BYU still managed to hit 44.8% of their shots in Spokane but a dreadful Read more

College Basketball Handicapping: Michigan State with strong track record off of a loss

For the last month, Michigan State has traded off wins and losses as it enters tonight's game at Purdue off a 60-51 home defeat vs. Nebraska. Over the last two regular seasons, the Spartans are 10-2 SU, 8-3 ATS (one game was not lined) off of a loss. MSU has also been a beast on the road, covering seven of its last eight contests. Keith Appling was expected to miss extended time but played 19 minutes against the Cornhuskers. He's reportedly good to go for tonight.

“I have five Big Ten games left in my final go-round as a Spartan,” he said, “and I plan on playing in all five of them.”

College Basketball Betting: BYU looks to snap losing skid vs. Gonzaga

Gonzaga has had BYU's numbers with five straight wins (4-0-1 ATS) in the series. All five of those games also went under the total. The Cougars haven't lost a home game since dropping last year's late season meeting vs. the Zags, 70-65.

"We don’t have any pressure on us," Tyler Haws said, when asked about the Cougars’ mindset. "We are just going out there trying to win a basketball game. We love playing in front of our home crowd. I think our guys feed off the energy and we are a lot more comfortable at home. So I am not worried about it."

College Basketball Handicapping: Minnesota's defense on the upswing

Article on Minnesota's recent defensive improvements. Seasonally, the Gophers rank 10th in the Big Ten in points per possession allowed (1.06) but last time out they held Northwestern to 0.81 and also puts the clamps on Indiana (0.94). They'll still have issues with the better offenses in the Big Ten but against Illinois and Ohio State (Sat.), Minny is primed for more strong outputs.

“We’ve played much better defense,” Gophers coach Richard Pitino said. “The numbers may not indicate it as much, but … [on Sunday] that was the most fundamentally sound we’ve been all year.”

“Guys are coming together and realizing that if we want to win games, we’re going to have to defend,” he said.

College Basketball Betting: Arizona looks to get bench more minutes

With Brandon Ashely out, Arizona's lack of depth has head coach Sean Miller concerned. It sounds as if Miller has no choice but to get his subs more minutes. In the Wildcats' overtime loss to Arizona State, the starters all played 45 minutes or more. According to KenPom, Arizona's bench ranks 300th nationally in terms of minutes used.

“We sort of talked about it … everyone on our team is ready to play those extra minutes,” center Kaleb Tarczewski said. “It’s something we have to do to win.”

“All of us as coaches and players, you take responsibility when you lose,” Miller said during his weekly news conference at McKale Center. “The last straw for me in terms of how we’re going to do things moving forward was the ASU game, because, with what we try to do and how we play, it makes no sense to play players close to 40 minutes.

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